The new edition of the rules of the game will become valid from the 1st of July for the period of the next four years. There is however, unlike before, the possibility to update the rules if needed in 2020 according to the decision of the IFF Central Board.

There are some changes compared to the rules edition 2014. The major changes can be considered to be the way to carry out the penalty shot, no two minutes penalty in conjunction of the penalty shot and the so called activity rule.

When a player performing the penalty shot the ball does not have to be in forward movement all the time. The key issue is that either the player or the ball moves forward.

One big change is that when a penalty shot is given due to an offence during the game, there will not be any two minutes penalty anymore. Only the penalty shot and regardless if a goal is scored or not, no two minutes penalty given. Five minutes bench penalties are still given in conjunction of the penalty shot if there’s an offence, which leads to five minutes penalty according to the rules.

The so called activity rule means that the teams are not allowed to play the ball behind their own goal, unless there’s a pressure from the opposing team. The referees first remind the team to play actively and if the team still keeps on playing behind their own goal, a free hit is awarded to the other team based on the rule of delaying the game.

The new rules take effect in all games from the 1st of July 2018 on without any exceptions. The new rules can be found from here.